Thomas Frank confirms if he'll celebrate Tottenham goal on emotional Brentford reunion

After nine rollercoaster years at Brentford, Thomas Frank is now looking to rectify Tottenham's home Premier League struggles against a team made up of his ex-players

Thomas Frank is simply treating his reunion with Brentford like a game of padel. After nine rollercoaster years in west London, the Dane is now looking to rectify Tottenham's home Premier League struggles against a team made up of his ex-players.

The Dane said: "It's a little bit more special facing Brentford where I'd been for nine years. That's almost a quarter of my life and I had a fantastic time there.

"I enjoyed every second of it and there's a lot of people I will see on Saturday that I haven't seen for a long time. But during the game, it's just about competing and winning a match.

"It's the same if I'm playing a game of padel against good colleagues. When we're playing, we're playing, it's not for fun, it's competitive.

"After that, we can be happy again." Frank also insists he will have no qualms celebrating against his former employers if Tottenham hit the back of the net, adding: "Yeah, I will because I think everyone respects the respect I have got for Brentford.

"The fans, everyone before kick-off, after kick-off, after the final whistle, in 90 minutes it's just about one thing, doing what we can to win the game."

Spurs have won just one top-flight matches at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium all season. Last weekend, prior to the spirited draw at Newcastle, Frank's flaky side were two goals down before the break against Fulham.

It prompted an on-pitch huddle amongst his players before the interval and the Spurs boss sees no issue with the ploy - if it helps his stars navigate jeopardy.

He explained: "The more they can encourage each other, the more there's positive body language. I think that just builds togetherness, so I think it's good.

"They're out there on the pitch, in the area, none of us are there, I know I stand close to it but I'm not in there. When they need to sort it out, they can only do that together."

Xavi Simons has now been named amongst the substitutes for Tottenham's last four matches. But Frank is adamant the £51.8million Dutchman is training well and that his next opportunity is not too far away.

He said when quizzed on why he has recently overlooked the attacking midfielder: "Xavi has trained fantastic. The last five, six times we've trained, he's had a very good attitude on the training pitch.

"I like that a lot and we played different games with different lineups. I think that Xavi was working towards something better and better and as long as he's the same like Mathys [Tel], train well, good attitude, then we're getting closer and closer.

"I also think it's also fair to say that he's come on in all four games we've played."